Part 25 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Verandrye's work.]

Thus were successively established, from 1731 to 1748, by Verandrye and his sons, Fort St. Pierre on Rainy Lake; Fort St. Charles on the Lake of the Woods; Fort Maurepas near the mouth of the Winnipeg; Fort Dauphin, on the north-west extremity of Lake Manitoba; Fort la Reine, on the southern extremity of the last-named lake; Fort Rouge, at the confluence of the a.s.siniboine and Red River; Fort Bourbon, at the head of Lake Winnipeg; Fort Poskoyae, on the Saskatchewan, and Fort Lacerne (Nipawi), at the forks of the said river.

In 1752, some years prior to the conquest of Canada, a relative of Verandrye, named Niverville, established Fort Jonquiere at the foot of the mountains.[56] Which of all these forts were to pa.s.s, after many vicissitudes, into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, we shall see in the course of subsequent pages. Verandrye and his compeers chose their sites with great care and ability; so that it was rarely that their successors were able to improve upon them. On the foundations or charred remnants of the French forts, should the structures themselves have perished, the English fur-traders, when they came, reared anew their posts.

While thus the French were pressing forward from the south and east at the same moment, a new rivalry threatened to spring up in the far north-west.

[Sidenote: Russia looks toward the New World.]

The eighteenth century broke upon an abated zeal of the Spaniards in extending their discoveries and dominions in the New World. Almost contemporaneously, the threads they threw down were grasped by another power, which the zeal and energy of one man had suddenly transformed from a collection of savage, barbarous tribes into a great nation.

Having achieved conquest over his neighbours and the cohesion of his new empire, Peter the Great turned his attention to a hardly inferior task. None knew as yet whether the two great continents, Asia and North America, united on the north-east. During Peter's residence in England, not the least of the inst.i.tutions interesting him was the Hudson's Bay Company. A letter from Peter is quoted by a Russian writer, in which he alludes to the English rivalry for these trades ”which had so long been the monopoly of Muscovy fur-hunting and fur-gathering.” Doubtless even at this time he was speculating upon the chances of Russia competing with England for the fur traffic of the New World. But before such a compet.i.tion could be brought about the question of the geographical connection between Asia and America must be settled. When he had been in Holland in 1717, he had been urged by some of the most eminent patrons of discovery amongst the Dutch to inst.i.tute an expedition of investigation. But again other matters intervened; although in 1727 two Russian officers were equipped and in readiness to start overland when they were recalled for service in Sweden.

Not until he was on his death-bed did Czar Peter pen with his own hand the instructions to Admiral Aproxin which bore fruit later. It was then, too, that the idea, according to Lestkof, was discussed of a Russian Fur Company, similar in its methods and organization to the Hudson's Bay Company.

Peter directed first that one or two boats with decks should be built at Kamschatka, or in the vicinity; that with these a survey should be made of the most northerly coasts of his Asiatic Empire, to determine whether they were or were not contiguous to America. Also that the persons to whom the expedition might be entrusted should endeavour to ascertain whether there was any port in those regions belonging to Europe, and to keep a strict look-out for any European s.h.i.+p, taking care also to employ some skilful men in making enquiries regarding the names and situation of the coasts which they discovered. They were to keep an exact journal and to transmit it to St. Petersburg.

Peter died, but the Empress Catherine, his successor, was equally favourable to the scheme, and gave orders to fit out the expedition.

To Captain Vitus Bering was entrusted the command. Under him were two lieutenants, Martin Spangberg and Alexi Tchirikoff; and besides other subalterns were several excellent s.h.i.+p-carpenters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MALDONADO'S ”STRAIT OF ANIAN,” 1609.]

On February 5, 1735, they set out from St. Petersburg, and on March 16 arrived at Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia.

[Sidenote: Bering's discoveries.]

Bering returned from his first voyage satisfied that he had reached the utmost limits of Asia, and that no junction with America existed.

Some years elapsed, and in 1741 Bering, Spangberg and Tchirikoff again volunteered. This expedition was destined to prove fatal to the explorer; he got lost in a fog, intense cold prevailed, scurvy broke out amongst the men, and on a little island in Bering's Sea he breathed his last.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAPIE'S MAP, 1821.]

Although many years were to elapse before the Russians took any more active steps, they had, by virtue of Bering's discoveries, got a footing on the North American Continent, and were thus already neighbours, if not yet rivals, of the Hudson's Bay Company.

”It is very evident,” wrote one of the contemporary chroniclers, ”that for upwards of two centuries and a half an opinion has prevailed amongst the most knowing and experienced persons, that there is a pa.s.sage to the north-west, and this built partly upon science, partly upon tradition. Now, it is very hard to conceive how such an opinion should maintain its credit if it was not founded in reality; for it is an old and true maxim that specious opinions endure but a short time, whereas truth is everlasting.”

For many years the notion of a north-west pa.s.sage had slept; but in 1737 it again attracted public attention. In that year Arthur Dobbs, a gentleman of some means and of scientific bent, made formal application to the Hudson's Bay Company that a search be undertaken.

Upon his representations the Company sent forth two of their s.h.i.+ps upon the quest. These, the _Churchill_ and the _Musquash_ went, however, no farther north than lat.i.tude 62 15' and returned without seeing anything worthy of notice, save ”a number of small islands, abundance of black whales, but no very great tides, the highest about two fathoms, the flood coming from the northward.”

There had been for a great many years in the Company's employ an able mariner, Captain Christopher Middleton. For some reason or other Middleton had become dissatisfied with their service and one of his friends placed him in communication with the patron of discovery, Dobbs, and a close correspondence ensued.[57]

Dobbs was eager to employ Middleton in a search for the long-sought straits. This was by no means an easy matter. In the first place the Company flatly declined to partic.i.p.ate in the scheme, alleging that they had already done enough in that direction[58] and that the whole idea was a fallacy.

There was no north-west pa.s.sage to India, and the sooner the public mind divested itself of the folly of supposing one existed the better it would be for the public purse and the public wisdom.

The Company pointed out that if Middleton should winter at either of the Company's factories it might drive the natives to trade with the French, who were always on the alert; and trade so lost would never return or be regained. They begged the Admiralty to restrain Captain Middleton from interfering with the Company's trade and invading their property and rights.

Dobbs, however, secured from the Admiralty for Middleton's use the bomb ketch _Furnace_, which, with another small vessel, the _Welcome_, was ready to sail early in June.

[Sidenote: The Company opposes further exploration.]

So opposed do the Company appear to have their domains meddled with by these fruitless explorations that they sent out a letter to their Governor at Churchill, which was the most convenient harbour for the explorers to winter in, not to receive Middleton into their fort.